


Skeletons In The Closet

by fizzypoprocks



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bisexual Peter Quill, F/F, F/M, M/M, high school avengers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 06:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28970091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fizzypoprocks/pseuds/fizzypoprocks
Summary: Despite living in the glorious, bustling city of NYC,  young Peter Quill always felt alone. Like he didn’t belong. Like he was just another small, unwanted speck in a big world. The busy halls of his school made him feel so enclosed, he couldn’t breathe anymore.Then came his new lab partner.
Relationships: Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Maria Hill/Natasha Romanov, Peter Quill/Tony Stark, Scott Lang/Stephen Strange
Kudos: 7





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> short little prologue. :)

**PROLOGUE**

5:01 AM. The small electronic clock read on Quill’s nightstand. The switch of the small green number caught his tired eyes. 5:02 AM. He tossed his body and flipped on his side, sudden annoyance hitting him as he attempted to fall back asleep. When his attempt failed and his brain was wide awake, he huffed in frustration and forced himself out of bed. His tired feet carried him over to the bathroom where he nearly dropped his toothbrush into the running sink. There it was. His reflection. His squinted eyes stared deeply as his reflection. What did he see? He saw a nobody. A nobody who gets little to no sleep, who’s probably failing half of his classes, who lives on coffee and cassettes.

A kid who’s real close to giving up on himself.

 _‘Oh stop it, Peter. Don’t be so dark.’_ He thought to himself. Finishing up brushing his teeth, he cleaned the toothpaste off of his mouth and headed back to his room. It was extremely early, way earlier than when he usually wakes up. He spent nearly 3 hours the night before correcting stupid English papers and ended up staying up a bit past 2 in the morning. Which wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary for Quill. Going to sleep late was a normal thing late. Now actually getting good sleep, however, was very strange for him.

The floorboards of his house creaked with every small tip toe he took towards his opened room door. The silence felt so loud, the creaking practically bounced off the peeling walls. The last thing he needed was to wake Yondu up this early. Didn’t go too well for him last time. Finally, after what felt like hours of basically floating across the hall slowly, he reached his room again and stood in front of his closet. Now came the hard part. Picking an outfit for the day. He tapped his foot on the floor, which he tended to do when he was evaluating or looking for something, and scanned the shelves closely.

He settled on a plain blue sweater and some jeans, though the sweater was one size too large. Quill didn’t care, it’s how he preferred to wear his clothes. Nearly collapsing onto his bed, he sat on the edge and put his sneakers on. Sometimes, things are 10 times harder when you’re half asleep. He cursed under his breath before finally getting his lace through the loop and tied his sneaker fully. With his backpack thrown over his shoulder and his messy attempt of trying to get his curls under control, he slid down the railing of the steps and shuffled into the kitchen. He grabbed an Uncrustable out of the fridge and plopped himself on the couch.

He took a bite and looked at the clock. 5:34 AM. Peter groaned. There was still a whole hour and a half until he had to leave the house. This is another reason he despised waking up too early. Why not listen to some music to pass the time, hm?


	2. The List

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chaotic day in the “dungeon”.

Peter pushed his finger on the buzzer and patiently waited for a response, looking the apartment complex up and down. “Who dares to approach this establishment?” A girl’s voice questioned, pretending to be clueless as to who was at the door. “None other than the pizza man, darling.” Peter spoke into the intercom with a smile on face when he recognized the voice. It was silent over the intercom, before the door unlocked. A redheaded girl opened it and stared at Quill, before suddenly gasping. “Oh no! It’s the wicked Star-Lord here to kidnap me and take me to his evil lair! Dear me!” She pretended to faint and fell into his arms. Quill giggled and caught her. “Come on, Nat. I’ll drag you if you don’t get up.” Natasha grunted in response. “Yes. Please drag me. Too tired to walk.” Quill looked down at her and saw her smirk. “Girl, stand up.” He sighed. “Fine, fine. I’m up.” 

“Also wher _e’s_ Scott?” Quill furrowed his eyebrows. “ _Boo_!” Scott startled him from the doorway, and Nat swore Peter jumped 10 feet in the air. She collapsed to her knees and nearly died of laughter as Scott stepped out of the doorway. “That is SO not funny. It’s way too early for this, I could’ve died!” Peter exclaimed. Scott wrapped him in a hug apologetically. “I’m sorry, Quill. I love yooouuuu.” Scott sang in a high pitched voice. “Yeah, I love you too- but don’t do that!”

Words could not describe how much Nat loved Quill and Scott. She cared for them so much. They were all like siblings to each other. Even since 2nd grade, they were each other’s escapes. Purely being each other’s company was just an escape from the dreaded reality of being a teenager. Throughout the course of middle school and high school, Nat realized how hard life is. But with her best friends by her side, she knew she was gonna be okay. All they had was each other in the end.

She realized she got so caught up in her thoughts, she was trailing behind the two of them. “Nat, come on! Pick up your feet!” Scott called to her as they walked towards the subway. Quill nearly stumbled down the steps and tripped over his shoelaces, he barely made it onto the train alive. “Dude, are you okay? You’re walking like a drunk monkey out here.” Scott wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “ ‘M fine.” Peter mumbled tiredly. “Just a bit out of it today is all.”

Nat sighed. “You really need to get more sleep. This isn’t good for you.” She lectured him as they stepped onto the train. “Look, I know you normally stand on the train because you hate the dirty seats but if you’re this tired, you’re gonna have to.” Scott persuaded him to sit. It wasn’t easy with Peter. They broke up in an quiet argument over whether he sits or not, causing some stares and side eyes from people getting on. Eventually, his stubbornness came to an end and he gave in. “Fine, fine! I’ll sit.” He slowly lowered himself onto the seat, clearly cringing. Peter _hated_ sitting on trains, he could never have the patience to stay still enough.

The train ride to school was overall silent. There was the occasional cough and shuffles of people’s feet, but the atmosphere was stiff. Quill sniffled and adjusted his music volume as Scott rested his head on his shoulder. Now that seemed to draw a bit of attention to them. They had that type of friendship that made Nat thought they were dating at first. Yeah, to Scott, Quill was good looking. And he was funny. But he never really looked at him like that. 

“Guys. Get up. It’s our stop.” Nat tapped them both on the knee, jolting them out of their thoughts. “Hm, what?” Quill mumbled and rubbed his eyes. Scott stood up and stretched a bit, helping Peter out of his seat. The kids gathered their things and rushed out the opening doors. They just needed to get out of there. “Ah! Air! I can breathe again.” Quill took a breath and danced around like this was the first time he’s ever been outside. “It’s one of the things I hate most about having to take the train in the morning. It’s so cramped.” 

The three teens made their way inside the building of chattering kids. You know, just the usual morning stuff. The boys throwing a football across the halls at each other, the “cool clique” gathered at their lockers in strange circles, actual civilized children getting ready for the day at their lockers quietly.

One thing that caught their eyes was “Carol’s Clique”, as many (a surprising amount) of the kids liked to call them. Pretty childish name. This group consisted of Carol Danvers herself, Steve Rogers, Stephen Strange, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Pepper Potts, Wanda Maximoff, and the one and only Tony Stark. Peter never understood why anybody liked Stark. He’d heard pretty shitty things about him. And though he’s never even interacted with him before, he kept his distance. And don’t get me wrong, he loved attention. Just didn’t want it from those kids. Last thing he needed was to be humiliated.

Continuing down the hall, they all gathered around Scott’s locker as it was the first one down. “Did any of you do Mr. Neeson’s lab essay?” Quill searched through his binder full of papers. “There was an essay?” Scott asked innocently. Nat snorted. “Yes, Scott. There was an essay. It was assigned like a week ago. You want to look at mine for reference?” She offered, unwrapping a piece of gum and popping it in her mouth. She held a piece out for Peter, which he grabbed without looking up. “Nah, I’m good. I just wanted to make sure you guys didn’t get a bad grade. If either of you fail, I have to live my senior year ALONE next year. I’m not having that.” He shut his binder, nearly dropping it on the floor. Quill glanced to his side to see Carol Danvers staring at him and whispering to Sam.

At first, he didn’t really mind. Probably some dumb rumors or the secret teasing. But then the _entire_ group was staring directly at him. Bucky even slightly giggled. Okay, this is really starting to get concerning now. It’s like all of their mischief-swirled eyes just burned into his skin as he mentally melted into their stare. From Peter’s point of view, it felt like time had temporarily stopped. Everything and everyone froze, papers and books frozen mid air. The room was spinning, the group of kids’ eyes still eyeing him. His vision blurred as the ceiling lights sparkled above him. His locker felt as if it locked him in. The hallway in front of him extending and stretching for miles and miles in front of him. What the hell is happening? He rests a hand on his head, trying to snap himself back to reality. 

They couldn’t stand there and stare basically laughing at him forever though. The bell finally rang, startling Quill out of... whatever the hell that was. Without saying a word to Scott or Nat, just a quick wave and a smile, he shuffled into his homeroom class. But they weren’t dumb. They knew Peter. And they knew something was off.

”Something’s wrong.” Nat muttered, following Scott down the hall. “What do you mean?” Scott flipped through papers in his notebook as he walked. “He like- nearly toppled over. His eyes were closed and everything. I thought he passed out for a minute.” Concern washed over her, making her shudder. “Listen, he’s Peter. I’m sure he’s fine and just had a weird out of body experience or something. He seemed to have snapped back to normal when the bell rang. He’ll be okay.” Scott tried to reassure her, but slightly tried to reassure himself in the process. “You can’t really blame him. Those kids were staring him down.” Nat glanced at him puzzled. “What kids?”

“Carol’s Clique or whatever the hell those kids are called.” Nat scoffed. “Do not buy into that dumb nickname the sophomores coined for them please. Anyway, why were they staring at him?” She raised a brow. “Not sure. I just saw Carol giggling and looking over at him. And then everyone else was. Especially Tony. Honestly he looked mischievous, like he knows something we don’t, so I’m worried for Peter.” Scott explained, his head hanging. Nat sighed. “I’m sure they’re just being assholes. He’ll be fine.” 

—

First period flew by insanely fast. All Peter did the entire period was try to balance a pencil on his nose and tap his feet on the floor. His teacher just blabbed on and on and all of a sudden, he was in his next class. Science. The one class he had dreaded because it was the one he had the lowest grade in. He was no scientist, but he was never failing. All until high school came around. His grades somehow fell and so did he. There was no way around it, he just felt so trapped. And eventually, he gave up. Blah blah blah- new project- blah blah blah- Something about getting partnered up- wait, partnered up?

”Peter?” Mr Neeson cleared his throat to get Peter’s attention. He jolted awake and looked up his teacher with a messy curl hanging in his face, earning some snickers from kids in the back. “Y-yes, Mr. Neeson?” What the hell, Quill? What was the stutter for? “You still with me? You look like you’re out in space somewhere.” Mr. Neeson smiled jokingly. “Yeah, I’m with you. You were talking about that new project coming up.” Nice save, Pete. He gave himself a mental high five for that one.

“Good. Now, we’re gonna do this partnering thing a bit differently this time. Normally, I’d just go down the list and say who you’re partners with. Not doing that this time. However, what I am gonna do is something else to keep you all on edge. I’ll be putting a piece of paper up on the board with the list of your partners. So don’t forget to check that before you leave my classroom today.” He explained before turning to the board to explain the project itself. 

At first, this didn’t bother Peter. Mr Neeson was known for pulling tricks like this. He liked to tease his students a bit. But the whole class period, Quill was feeling off. He had no idea what the hell happened with his nerves. It didn’t help that the hallway incident was still on his mind. Why did this bother him so much? Why did that make him feel so self conscious, it gave his brain a reason to flip out? The clicking of his pen throughout class was what distracted him for a bit, before he actually decided to pay attention. His eyes looked up at the board as they scanned the freshly printed black letters written in Expo marker.

”Some people clearly weren’t paying attention. So I’ll explain again. Your assignment is to create a machine. An _actual functioning machine_ , not some balloon car. This isn’t middle school.” Mr Neeson’s voice echoed throughout the shallow walls of the room. “You may use whatever materials you need and make whatever you want. It must complete a simple task, such as filling a glass of water. It can do whatever you’d like it to do. Bonus points if you can create an on and off switch for it.”

The shrill sound of the bell cut him off as he scooted away from the board, awaiting the stampede of kids running to check their partners. Backpacks fell and chairs were nearly knocked over as the whole class ran up to the list. Quill took his time though. He put his books neatly and didn’t rush despite being shoved by multiple people racing through the aisle. He could hear the one and only Tony Stark’s voice talking to some people about his partner. “Never talked to him, he seems chill” was all he heard. Several scattered gasps and whispering caught his ear and drew his attention more to the list. People had stared at him and instantly cleared the way so he could approach the board.

The classroom nearly went silent, his slow feet squeaking against the cold floor and the whispers of kids was all that was heard. Slowly and cautiously, he placed his point finger on the paper and dragged his finger down until he reached his name. He narrowed his eyebrows and swiped his finger to the right to see his partner’s name. Now it came. The realization of all the quiet panic. Quill’s eyes scanned the name once more to make sure he was reading that right, and he sure was.

Tony Stark.

This was gonna get ugly real fast.


End file.
